You may be thinking Arctic15 May 26th -27th is all about startups and established companies looking for growth. Yes it is. Nevertheless there are different angles how a company seeks growth and one of the best for most companies is still: sales. While the option to raise huge amount of venture capital and utilize investors networks and connection is limited to a few, the option to sell your ready solution to a customer is given to each of you who made it to the product launch. Another option to approach large customers is to be involved with an accelerator as middleman between startup and corporates. Both options are the keystones of our B2B TRACK May 27th..
The B2B TRACK is moderated by Inka Mero, entrepreneur, angel investor and new businesses executive. She is co-founder of KoppiCatch which recently launched Star-Tap, a new accelerator programme for matching startups and corporations, as well as sitting in the board of Nokian Tyres, Fiskars and Staffpoint.
Large corporates are often seen as bureaucratic monsters, slow in adapting new trends and pretty conservative when it comes to buying products and solutions from rather early stage companies. This still may be true for many, but at Arctic15 you will meet those corporates who have realized that the markets are moving fast and customer needs even faster. While in house production can take years before anything gets launched, the use of a smaller company´s lean structure, decision making and fast production can bring the competitive advantage. Therefore at Arctic15 corporates get to have their say too in our Reverse Pitching, where the brave ones take the stage to reach out to the startup community. Large companies get to share their needs and show their interest towards the startup world while scouting for potential partners and acquisition targets. Early stage companies get the opportunity to pitch directly to interested corporates. This means sales pitches and product demonstrations, not investment pitches. Eventually this may lead to testing your solutions in larger organizations, get references, open up sales channels and nevertheless revenues.
The 2014 GE Global Innovation Barometer survey reports that 85 percent of corporate respondents said that collaboration with startups and entrepreneurs will drive success for their organization in the future. We have representatives of Fonecta, Sanoma, Stora Enso and Nordea who will discuss corporates´ point of view, advantages and challenges of cooperating with startups. Colette Ballou, founder of Ballou PR, will add in her talk about “Corporation Reputation” how you can define your companies public image through your public relations and collaborations.
Don’t forget to check our event Schedule and Arctic15 Partners to find the corporates and potential customers you are looking for. Corporates like our Platinum Partner Microsoft are easy to find through the Corporate page.
Startups create disruptive innovations which do new things in ways that the existing market does not expect and create new markets and value networks. They have also access to incredible platforms to build globally scalable tools. Also the cost to innovate is very reasonable for startups with agile product development while at the same time innovation teams in large corporations are often facing bureaucratic silos and cultural resistance with the cost of innovation, creativity and agility.
However collaboration with startups needs the right structures to make it happen. Corporations and startups have to learn to communicate with each other and in many cases a middle man is useful when two different cultures meet. Partnering with accelerators can be a symbiotic relationship for everyone. Startups can get access to funding, mentorship and industry insight. The corporations get to know a wide range of evaluated startups for months or years prior to making a business deal, investment or even an acquisition decision. If you want to dig deeper into this subject, you shouldn’t miss Kaj Hagros’ “Added Value by a Middle Man” talk.
Vigo is the partner for the B2B TRACK, meet them, their accelerators and portfolio cases. Vigo´s current Accelerators are: Cleantech Invest, East Wing, Gorilla Ventures, Helsinki Ventures, Innovatum Parters, KoppiCatch, Lifeline Ventures, Newventures, Royal Majestic Helsinki, Vendep, Veturi Venture Accelerators. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet them and get involved in the discussion.
It’s possible to buy one-day tickets only.
Cathedral of Saint Nicholas photo by Shutterstock
